Pick Of The Pops 1958 and 19677062

I am listening to his programme on BBC Radio 2. The charts on this day in 1958 have just finished and 1967 about to begin.

What a diversity of songs we had in the charts in 1958. Some of you may not have been born or were small children then but I was approaching 15 and can remember all of them. We had Perez Prado, Dean Martin, Max Bygraves, Marty Wilde and Elvis to name but a few. Phil and Don were at number 2 with Dream/Claudette and The Kalin Twins were at number 1 with When.

1967 is looking good - with The Small Faces and Amen Corner the first two to be played. I must make this a regular listen as I no longer mind the grandchildren on Saturday as my son has changed jobs.

Ah Jane. We think alike I was just about to post the very same!! I'd been listening whilst ironing as well as having a little bop every now and then. Apparently Dream/ Claudette had been at number 1 I think he said for 6 weeks. There was certainly a mixture Max Bygraves!! Charlie Drake!! Who bought those records?? Ha ha xx

I listen to this programme as often as I can Jane, it is great to listen to all the old songs in two separate segments instead of one or two in a show. "Dream" stayed in the charts for 21 weeks. I guess that is the top 40.

I have a book "Guinness book of British Hit Singles", it is an old edition (10th) now but who wants the newer years???? Written by Tim Rice, Paul Gambaccini and Jonathan Rice every single hit since 1952. Don't let the "British" put you off it has everything in there, in different lists, it is a must for a one off buy. My copy when new was £11.99. There are a few photos in too. It starts alphabetically and the Everlys are listed with The year, title, how long in the charts and what chart high they achieved. A-Z in the back. Then weeks of charts such as the one you describe Jane. It is like a musical bible, maybe check out if you can buy a 2nd hand one. I took an older edition to work and they use it often. If a song comes on the radio and someone wants to know the year, artist etc, they go back into the office to check on it in their break. I can just about hear the radio on from my office, I wish they would turn it up!!!

Yes Patricia was the one that was played Craig. It is a great programme which is on every Saturday afternoon and has a run down of the top twenty for two different years. I think we are very lucky to have the BBC here in the U.K. as we have tv channels and radio channels to choose from for only £150 a year with no tedious advertisements to interrupt programmes and when you reach 75 you don't have to pay anything.

If anyone is in London I would recommend doing the BBC tour. I took my granddaughter two years ago and it was really interesting. I think it was about £12 each.

That Guinness Book...sounds great, Chris. A valuable and accurate help to all of the great, listenable, singable, memorable songs from 'back in the day.' I really "Patricia" back in those High School days, he also did "The Happy Organ," etc. That programme also sounds fantastic. Your BBC is outstanding! Always has been good and sensible and very listenable. Wish we had it over here in the states. We have a National Public Radio (NPR) which is a step above the rest of the blah, commercials (!!) bland programming. I recently dropped my DirecTV satellite dish programming...$840. a year, 500 channels and only one....Turner Classic movies......that didn't butcher the films with commercials, etc. The classic TV series re-runs, same thing 21 minutes of the real thing and 8 mins. of commercials in between. The British / BBC are way ahead of us over here in a number of ways. I watch a lot of YouTube videos...free...Google owns it and you can "loop" them so they play continuously, to fall asleep to, all night long. The real good movies you have to pay $2.99 for, but............ I had a DVD collection once and had just the movies, etc., that I wanted and that was fun for awhile. Now, I just play around with You Tube. In the 1950's Television was free...an indoor rabbit-ears antenna, then an outdoor roof-top antenna, plug the set in and watch and somehow, the commercials weren't that annoying....guess we didn't know any better....they were almost entertaining and funny. Today? Forget. You have to pay Comcast or some other provider who constantly raise their prices and offer 98%...nothing. Thanks, Jane for the recommendation of the BBC Tour in London. I will definitely do that if and when I get back over there. Haven't been there for decades, so........... Last time was to see my grandfather and uncle who lived in Walthamstow. I liked St. Paul's Cathedral. Wouldn't mind seeing that again and take my time learning about it, Sir Christopher Wren, etc. Saw Buckingham Palace, of course. Had dinner at The Regent Palace, shopped at Harrod's, etc. It takes weeks to "do" London, correctly. Guess, that's the same for New York City. Philadelphia would take about a half-a-day and that's it. Benjamin Franklin's house, Independence Hall with the Liberty Bell with a crack in it. Would you guys want to take that back and re-cast it and send it back to us, again, by any chance? I think it cracked twice!! Do you mind checking the warranty on it, if you don't mind? Then again 250 years might be a bit past warranty coverage. Just kidding. Bells often cracked back in those days in all countries.

We had that Guinness book of Hit Singles, I must look to see if we still have it. If there was ever a question or difference of opinion about hit records out it would come. I agree it was very useful but of course now we have the Internet to answer our questions or settle such arguments.

Glad it makes you happy and laugh. I could send some pictures of my paycheck stubs and my tax returns and you would go into hysterical laughter! My old car makes people happy, also, when I drive down the street they always point at it and laugh!